Spokane, Washington, USA
Designed by Michael Green Architecture and Katerra, together with landscape architects Bernardo Wills Architects, the Catalyst Building is expected to meet Zero Energy and Zero Carbon standards, which would make it one of the most sustainable buildings in North America.
Catalyst Building, Phase 2 won a recent 2021 Green Good Design® Award and a 2021 International Architecture Award from The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and The Chicago Athenaeum.
Located in Spokane, Washington, the 165,000 sq. ft. Catalyst Building is the first completed building in a highly sustainable district called the South Landing Eco-District. This leading-edge project sets the standard for additional buildings that will be built in this district.
The program includes offices, classrooms, common study areas, an Innovation Lab located on the ground floor, and will house Eastern Washington University’s Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics programs.
The Catalyst Building was built on an irregular site, which was underutilized and in need of revitalization. The building is connected to the University District by way of the Gateway Bridge – a pedestrian bridge that brings together the two university core areas.
The project team’s ambition was to design and construct a mass timber building that could exceed the performance of a comparable steel and concrete building while showcasing CLT’s benefits concerning aesthetics, building efficiency, and environmental impact.
This goal was realized through sustainable MEP design, smart building management systems, and the use of over 4,000 cubic meters of both CLT and glulam products, which have stored 3,713 metric tons of carbon dioxide. The CLT panels used in the building were sourced from local working forests, harvested using sound ecological practices, and manufactured 15 miles from the site.
A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the building, authored by the Carbon Leadership Forum at the University of Washington, concluded that the timber’s carbon storage nearly offsets the embodied carbon impact of construction.
By focusing on lower-carbon materials, the conversation around sustainability in the built environment can broaden from only energy usage to total carbon emissions over a building’s lifecycle.
This project proves that sustainable development outcomes and new construction methods can coexist with more traditional metrics for affordability, operational efficiency, and tenant comfort.
“Passive-first” strategies include rainwater capture reducing water use, envelope design using Passive House standards, and durable material application to achieve a design life expectancy of 75 years.
The building’s airtightness test results were outstanding, with Catalyst’s building envelope performing at three times the airtightness required for the Passive House Standard. The Catalyst also draws from a centralized energy plant through a model called an eco-district.
The Catalyst Building symbolizes both Spokane and Washington State’s commitments to sustainability.
Project: Catalyst Building
Architects: MGA | Michael Green Architecture (Design Architect)
Architects of Record: Katerra (Architect of Record)
Landscape Architects: Bernardo Wills Architects
Client: McKinstry / South Landing Investors, LLC.
Photographer: Benjamin Benschneider
